======================================================================== Nib Noise * Volume 15 Number 4 * July 2016 ======================================================================== Welcome to Nib Noise. We hope you'll enjoy reading this month's issue. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER! For comments or questions, send email to: richard@richardspens.com To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Our Next Pen Show Will Be the Washington DC SuperShow *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ First, it's almost time for the Greatest Pen Show on Earth! Washington is one of the world's great tourist cities, so if you have family members who aren't insane about pens -- you do, of course, or you wouldn't be reading this paragraph -- you can turn them loose at the Spring Hill Metro stop (see below, Getting to the SuperShow) and forget them while they see the sights in town. With the pre-show crankin' up on Thursday, August 4, and running through Friday, the Big Show will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7. If you want to attend on Friday or think you might want to attend on more than one day, you really need a weekend pass, which admits you to all of the pre-show events, including the Friday wine and beer party. It also gains you early admission on the public days. You can purchase a weekend pass at the show's registration desk. This show is so-o-o big, and so-o-o good, that you may face a legitimate worry about having a panic attack when you walk in the front door of the hotel. Yes, the pen show fills the lobby, too. If you plan to come and haven't ever been to a show before, you might want to read my article on Your First Pen Show: http://www.richardspens.com/?shows=firstshow Also, please read our "Table Talk" FAQ to learn how we operate at shows: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=shows+faq For more information about the show and the Sheraton Premiere hotel, please visit the show's Web site: http://www.pencentral.com/ Once you get there, you'll definitely want to visit the world's biggest and best ink testing table, in the hotel lobby! This great feature is open 24 hours a day while the show is on, so for you insomniacs there's something to while away the wee hours. Barbara and I will be there for the whole show, from the Overture on Thursday afternoon to the final curtain on Sunday. As always, I'll be regrinding and tweaking nibs while their owners wait. Bring a pen, and share some of the sparkling repartee at our table while I jazz up your writing experience. We can accept your MasterCard, VISA, American Express, or Discover card -- but many of the vintage dealers are hobbyists who can handle only cash, so be sure to note the location of the ATM in the hotel lobby. But bear in mind the advice I've laid out in my article on Your First Pen Show (linked above). We look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We hope to see you there. Make your hotel reservations sooner rather than later! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Getting to the SuperShow *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In case you think it's a pain in the tail to get way out there to the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner -- why couldn't they have held the show close to a nice convenient Metro stop? -- maybe you weren't aware of the Spring Hill Metro stop just a short walk from the hotel. To get from the Metro stop to the hotel, proceed to street level on the side of Leesburg Pile where the Honda dealer is located. Walk 600 feet northwest on Leesburg Pike to Westwood Center Drive (on your left). Walk 400 feet west on Westwood Center Drive, then turn right and walk 500 feet on Cornerside Boulevard to Ashgrove Lane. Across Ashgrove Lane from you is the Sheraton. I've snapped a Google Maps view of the area and marked the walking route on it. The image file is here: http://www.richardspens.com/images/info/tysons.png ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Nib Workshop at the DC Show *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ably assisted by my protégés Linda Kennedy and Jim Baer, I will be giving my hands-on nib smoothing seminar at the DC show. It happens Sunday morning, beginning promptly at 8:30. You must register to participate, and there is a $20 materials fee. Attendance is limited to 16 participants, but you will be welcome to audit the workshop without registering. Registration will open automagically on my site, NOT THE SHOW SITE, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Saturday, July 23: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=workshop If you decide after the workshop that you'd like to try working with your own pens, IndyPenDance will have most of the workshop materials for sale at their table. (The "official" materials include a couple of practice pens; you'll have to provide additional pens yourself.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Black Pen Society Annual Meeting *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Black Pen Society will hold its annual meeting at the SuperShow. If you are not already aware of the BPS, check out the Society's page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackpensociety ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Reading Is Never Out of Season *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a little light (?) summer reading, why not load up your iPad or Kindle or Nook with a few of my books? The first four volumes of the RichardsPens Guide to Fountain Pens, my well-received 366 Days of World War II, and the Curmudgeon's Dictionary all await your reading pleasure; links to them are here: http://www.richardspens.com/?bks=richard For the hardcopy diehards, 366 Days and Volume 2 of the RichardsPens Guide are available in old-fashioned print versions, in the form of high-quality trade paperbacks. You can find links to these volumes, as well as the ebooks, on the page linked above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** On the Monthly Pen Show Tray and in Barbara'a Attic *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are some seriously snazzy pens on the Tray this month. It will automagically open itself for sale at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time tonight, June 30. Don't miss out! http://www.richardspens.com/?pens=tray If my programming skills are inadequate to prevent the Tray page from selling you something before the Witching Hour, we will cancel any such errors and return the payments. This is the only way we can ensure fairness to all. We've loaded up a new tray for Barbara's Attic, and since it went up yesterday some of those pens may already have slipped out of your grasp. There is also one *very* special pen in the Attic. Check it out! Because of the long July 4 holiday weekend, we will ship items purchased from now through Tuesday on Wednesday, July 6. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Broad Strokes *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A couple of weeks ago, I ran three promising pen professionals through my intensive three-day nib workers' class. Please congratulate Mauricio Aguilar, Dale Beebe, and Brian Gray! Before the class got underway, I realized that I didn't have enough of the hard-to-find stands that I use for the grinding tools. So i designed and built one from wood. The instructions and plans, for those who migfht want to build grinding stands, are here: http://www.richardspens.com/?rep=dremelstand ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Pens That Write Right! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unless otherwise requested at the time of sale or unless otherwise noted in Barbara's Attic, I personally tune each new nib we sell at no extra charge before shipment. I test the nib in a pen filled with Waterman Mysterious Blue ink and write with it on paper of better than average quality, adjusting as necessary to bring it up to the RichardsPens.com "factory" standard for smoothness and flow. If you order a new nib with customization (gold nibs only), I'ill modify the nib (for an extra charge), and we will ship it without any extra delay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Follow Us on the Internet with Facebook and Twitter *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We'd like to be liked on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NashuaPenSpa And you're invited to follow our occasional tweets on Twitter: @RichardsPens ======================================================================== If you received this newsletter from Richard Binder, you are a Nib Noise subscriber. If it came from someone else, I invite you to subscribe. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise Note: We will never sell your name or email address. 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